Ah, the classic Fibonacci trap! What the engineer doesn't realize is that calculating the 80th Fibonacci number is actually a computational nightmare with naive recursion. The time complexity is O(2^n) - meaning your algorithm basically doubles its work with each step.
While the dad thinks he's asking a simple question, he's actually posing a problem that would make even a decent computer cry. Without memoization or dynamic programming, that poor engineer's PC would probably burst into flames before reaching F(80)!
And that, kids, is why you always optimize your algorithms before meeting your girlfriend's father.